Sketching with Pens

Your Silhouette can do more than cut; it can also sketch! You can download sketch designs from the Silhouette Design Store or tell your machine to sketch instead of cut a design. If you’d like to see just how easy it is to sketch a design, follow the instructions listed below.

Supplies Needed:

1. Open your designs in Silhouette Studio®. Resize if needed. If you are using the Basic Edition of Silhouette Studio®, simply design your project with regular cut lines showing. If you are using Designer Edition or higher, you can use the Sketch Pen panel to customize your design.

2. Place your sketch pen in your tool holder on your machine. If you are using a machine with a dual carriage, you can use more than one sketch pen at a time.

3. If do choose to utilize the dual carriage, assign the correct lines to the correct color. In Silhouette Studio®, go to the Send panel. Go to Action by: Line and select “Cardstock” for your material type. Since you are sketching and not cutting the material, it doesn’t really matter which material you choose. Choose “Sketch” for your action and “Sketch Pen” for your tool with sketch pen and “Pen holder” for your tool with pen holder. Tip: If you are using more than one color for your project and you don’t have a dual carriage, you can add pauses (When you select the Action by: Line tab, click on the line you want to add pause after, right-click, and add a pause). When your job pauses, change out your sketch pen for the next color and resume your sketch.

4. Send your design to sketch. Remember that each line your sketch pen makes is a “cut,” so the sketching process may be a bit lengthy.

Remove your finished project. You are an artist, and your Silhouette just did all the work for you!